A Ukip spokesman apologised to Mr Jayawardena, saying the comments “have absolutely no place in British politics or public life”.

Ukip’s deputy leader Paul Nuttall defended his party over numerous past scandals, saying all the other parties had the same issues.

“From 1 January this year there has been 319 councillors from all of the other political parties who have either been convicted or stood down for issues as bad as paedophilia, fraud, theft, terrorism, rape… I mean, the list can go on. So we don’t have a monopoly – this is a problem for all political parties,” he told the Today programme.

“The other parties have exactly the same issues; it’s just that with us it constantly gets picked up by the national press.”